


Terrorgammons Howdydos

by fireflysglow_archivist



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/F, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-01-11
Updated: 2003-01-11
Packaged: 2019-04-29 10:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14470272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireflysglow_archivist/pseuds/fireflysglow_archivist
Summary: River throws a dead man's party.





	Terrorgammons Howdydos

**Author's Note:**

> Note from alice ttlg, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Firefly’s Glow](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Firefly%27s_Glow), and was moved to the AO3 as part of the Open Doors project in 2018. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are the creator and would like to claim this work, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Firefly's Glow collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/fireflysglow/profile).

 

Terrorgammons Howdydos

## Terrorgammons Howdydos

### by Rachel

Disclaimer: Firefly belongs to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Other works referenced also belong to their copyright holders. No infringement intended.  
Spoilers: post-War Stories. 

Kaylee is splayed on the deck, her hand against Serenity's thrumming engine. The cool metal feels like a beating heart, safe and true, but still she cannot stop remembering River's chanting "can't look, can't look" before dropping three men with a precision that seemed ripped from another's mind. That's impossible, of course, but how impossible is it when River replies to stray thoughts or silent commands that never passed Kaylee's lips? 

Dirty but delicate feet weave through machinery not unlike themselves. River kneels beside Kaylee, folding her legs close against her body. "Axe James why said," she implores. 

"I don't understand," Kaylee says earnestly, but with no expectation of an explanation. Since Ariel, the moments of clarity have stretched to minutes and even hours, but when River is lost, Kaylee cannot find her. 

River purses her lips before trying again. "Where the lisieuse are we and what's the first sing to be sung?" 

Kaylee sits up, extending a calming hand. "River?" 

River catches the hand and presses a kiss against the palm, continuing, "Is it rubrics"--she stretches to drop a kiss on Kaylee's forehead--"mandariums"--left cheek--"pasqualines"--right cheek--"or verdidads is in it"--lips now and Kaylee must have stopped breathing, she's so lightheaded--"or"--River pauses to grasp Kaylee's shoulders with a strength not reflected in her slight frame--"livid indecores of estreme voyoulence and"--another kiss, this time deeper--"for the lover of lithurgy, bekant or besant"--quick kisses mark each b--"where's the fate's to be wished for?" 

Kaylee doesn't understand, can't possibly understand. All she can do is let River's voice, melodic and newly lilting, flow over her mind as the lips that issue it skim over her skin. The elbows supporting her weight slip and she splays across the deck once again. River follows easily, kisses down her jaw, along the length of her neck, murmuring, "Here she's, is a bell, that's wares in heaven, virginwhite, Undetrigesima, vikissy manonna..." 

Somehow, as River mouths her collarbone, words not her own form in Kaylee's mind and she manages through a moan, "My sweet assistance." 

River falls back in shock and scurries away in fright. She wets her lips and counts the rivets in the floor plates between them. "Sufferant pen?" she probes. 

Kaylee struggles again to sit up and words slip through her haze of arousal: "Reed behind the ear." Fear snakes into her chest as she realizes that River's litany has become her own. As Kaylee's eyes widen in panic, River instantly closes the distance. Kaylee's hands tangle in River's hair and her fear ebbs away. If this is the result, she doesn't care that River's thoughts have leaked into her mind. If this is the reward, she's fairly certain that her name is Is-a-bell, Isobel. 

Notes: It occurred to me that an inquisitive little genius like River would enjoy the word play and interpretive challenge of Finnegans Wake. Of course, Wake doesn't read, but this is written, so I suppose it works. "Terrorgammons Howdydos" is a corruption of "te rogamus, audi nos," one of the responses in the Litany of the Saints. 

#### If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to Rachel


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